Huns
by Ghost of the Navigator
Summary: The story of the Huns reign of terror
1. The Hordes Mobilize

**The Hordes Mobilize**

The large town of Vischvilli sat in the bottom of a wide valley. It was surrounded by trees which gave it both good protection and an excellent source of wood, which was needed for almost everything.

This was the base camp of the Hunnic Army. Apart from the barracks, market and church there was basically nothing in Vischvilli. There were just the houses of the townspeople who were forced to worship the Hunnic leader Gaddit or be executed.

Gaddit's reign was a reign of terror. He brought fear to the heart of the townspeople by just glancing at them. He could destroy the morale of his enemies just by crying out loud. He was unbelievably powerful. Only his own armies were not afraid of him. Or if they were they did well not to show it.

The barracks sat in the centre of the town, where the beautiful park used to be. The barracks was by far the largest building in the town. It had to be if it was to house the thousands of men and dogs that were in the army. Not only was it housing these men, it also had to have enough facilities to train them, feed them and forge their armour and weapons. There were four towers, one at each corner of the barracks. These were the towers of the generals. They faced North, South, East and West.

The North tower was reserved for the leader Gaddit. He was especially given the North tower because their god, Alok, is the God of Ice and as far as the Huns knew there was only ice in the North.

The South tower was reserved for General Deaban. He was second in command. A tall man, the tallest in the army. He stood at 6' 9". His height alone struck fear to his enemies not to mention his skill with a bow. Even with his skill and height he was still not as feared as Gaddit, whose skill far surpassed Deaban's.

The West and East towers were reserved for the twin sergeants Taek and Faure. Equally as strong and equally as talented as each other they were able to rip part legions upon legions of men on their own. They had proved this in their battle with the Western Empire of Rome and the Eastern Empire of Rome. That is why they were given these towers because of their heroism in those battles. Both the Western and Eastern Empire's leaders were struck down. The Western leader was dispatched by Taek; the Eastern leader was dispatched by Faure.

These four men were now gathered in the North Tower. They were leaning over a table with a map spread out on it.

"We shall go there then?" asked Deaban

"Of course…they will tremble at our feet…begging for mercy," answered Gaddit with a smile, "all we have to do is decide if we stick them all…or take a few prisoners."

"Well it looks like we have a long day tomorrow if that is when we are to leave" said Taek.

"Indeed, I suggest we get a good nights rest, maybe some cat meat and hot wine" added Faure.

The four men nodded in agreement and three of them started to descend the spiral staircase.


	2. Preparations

**Preparations**

Taek marched out into the courtyard from the entrance of his tower. He stopped in the middle and took a deep breath. The smell of a fresh day filled his nostrils. He turned round on the spot to face the army houses. He shielded his eyes from the sun and sighed.

"They know not what they get themselves into".

He marched on to the entrance to the bell tower, situated in one side of the barracks. He made his way up the grey stone spiral staircase, holding onto the thick rope that ran up the side. It made him dizzy travelling in a spiral. He detested the mornings that he was to ring the bell. He finally reached the top and rang the large iron bell.

The bell rang through the whole barracks and awoke Gaddit from his deep sleep. He jumped out of bed angrily and ran to the window.

"Keep that bloody bell silent!" he yelled.

This statement also ran through the whole barracks. The soldiers who were already awake could not help but laugh at this. It was not often that Gaddit let his guard down like that.

Taek marched down the staircase again and marched out the door into the centre of the courtyard. Once again shielding his eyes from the sun he called out instructions.

"All captains are to assemble their troops and have them in the courtyard in fifteen minutes…in battle formation. Any captain who does not complete my order will be executed. It is the start of a struggle for power and so we must be punctual!"

With that he marched back to his tower to prepare himself for what lay ahead.


	3. Open the Gate

**Open the Gates**

Gaddit walked out of the entrance in his tower. Facing him was a perfectly formed band of warriors. The feared Hunnic Army. At the front of each unit was the flag, flapping in the light breeze. It bore a picture on it of a white bird on a black background, with an arrow through its heart.

The units turned to face the gate. The sun shone down on them. They were all perfectly turned out. Shining black breastplate accompanied black leg armour, with silver thigh guards. From their shoulders large spikes stood to attention. Their boots, all properly cleaned, were as black as a crow. They too had spikes coming from their heels. The captains wore black bandanas around their heads and the warriors wore polished black helmets, with personalised eye-shields (Gaddit liked to give his men some freedom of expression). The warriors' weapons were small sharpened swords and hand axes. The generals were given their choice of a broadsword, battleaxe or a large, heavy club, with nails hammered through it so that they stuck out the other side.

Gaddit himself had a fixed stern expression on his face. He was determined to make this all go well. He was turned out in full battle armour. He wore a shiny gold helmet with a black stripe running down the middle, a gold breastplate with black shoulders from which a spike double the size of the warriors' spikes protruded. Gold leg armour with silver thigh guards and shiny gold boots polished just last night. On his left side there hung his sword, polished and sharpened. On his right side there hung his bag of crossbow bolts. His crossbow was strapped to his back within easy reach of both his arms.

General Deaban marched from his tower in his splendid silver armour. This armour was nearly exactly the same as Gaddit's except the main pieces were not gold, but silver and his thigh guards were black. His helmet had a white stripe down the middle. He too had two weapons. His left side was home to double headed battle-axe and his right side housed his eight foot long, black leather whip. It was red at the frayed end because of the dried blood spilt by it. Also at the end that was frayed were freshly polished silver blades. These were the only pieces of the whip that had been cleaned. Gaddit picked up on this.

"General?" Gaddit asked

"Sir?" answered Deaban

"Your whip…why isn't it cleaned?" inquired Gaddit

"Ran out of time last night sir," replied Deaban

"Excuses, excuses…they matter not…you must be punished!" exclaimed Gaddit.

Gaddit sent one of the captains off to fetch his riding whip. It was brought to him and he turned to face Deaban. He drew back his hand and three times, struck Deaban on his left cheek with the short riding whip. Deaban stifled the cry he was going to let out and faced Gaddit eye to eye. He then took one step back, stood to attention and tilted his head as a sign of respect to Gaddit.

Just then Taek and Faure marched out of their opposing towers. They walked silently towards each other and when they reached each other they bowed and turned to face Gaddit and then bowed again. They were immaculately turned out. They wore identical deep blue armour in the same style as Deaban except for the main pieces being blue. They carried different weapons though. Taek carried a long trident on one side and a short hand axe on the other. Faure carried a thick black spiked ball and chain on one side with a quiver of arrows on the other and a longbow on his back.

"Well since everyone is ready we had better get going" started Gaddit, but he was cut short by the loud bang of a courtyard door and a soldier ran to his unit. He was late.

Gaddit marched to the unit the man had just joined and stood in front of the captain. The captain bowed.

"Is this soldier part of your unit?" asked Gaddit

"Unfortunately sir, yes he is," answered the captain.

"My orders were clear about punctuality captain, and the rules must be followed. As captain it is your responsibility to get your men out on time. So I regret to inform you of your execution, which will take place now, as my orders stated. Taek, bring the block. Faure, bring the axe," said Gaddit.

The block and axe were brought out and placed securely on the ground. The captain dropped to his knees without having to be asked. A heroes execution. He placed his neck on the block and shut his eyes.

Gaddit lifted the axe of the ground and held it above his head. With a now, sorrowful look on his face, he quickly slammed the axe down on the back of the captains neck and severed his head from his body. As was required, Gaddit picked up the captains severed head and walked to a long sharpened stick stuck in the ground and forced the head onto it. The stick pushed up out of the top of the captains head.

Gaddit marched back to his troops. He looked to one of the warriors in the unit without its captain.

"Congratulations on your promotion, captain," he said.

The warrior bowed and picked up the fallen flag.

"Thank-you sir," he replied.

Gaddit turned and took his place at the head of his army. Deaban, Taek and Faure fell in behind him and the order was given.

"Open the gate!"


	4. Death Approaches

Death Approaches

**Death Approaches**

The wood creaked as the solid oak doors to the barracks were slowly opened. The sun shone in through the gap between the doors, glinting off Gaddit's armour. He tapped his feet impatiently and turned to face his army.

"Today we move out on our first campaign to take over the world. One faction by one, our enemies will fall at our feet and we will have total control. We start with those who once drove our ancestors back into the hills in the East. The Vandals have done our ancestors a great injustice! They pillaged our gold. They killed our fathers and raped our mothers! These dogs need to pay and we are the ones to do it! So we march out to battle and victory!"

The army gave a large cry and banged their swords off their armour or hit the ground with shields. They were ready and Gaddit knew it. Gaddit turned and began to march out of the barracks. The army moved off behind him. Deaban, Taek and Faure in their beautiful armour led the army forward behind Gaddit. They were going to a land they did not know and a land that would, Alok willing, be theirs soon.

"We'll stop here and rest for a short while", Gaddit ordered, "make yourselves as comfortable as you can…not you though," he said pointing to one of the axemen squads, "I've got a special job for you. You are to go forward and scout out the area and see what lies ahead so that we can prepare for what is coming. Go now!"

The captain of the squad did not need to be told twice. H turned to his men and ordered them to ready weapons and follow him. He drew his broadsword (the mark of a captain) and it gleamed in the sunlight breaking through the trees. He moved out of the troops and started on his way down the valley.

Gaddit sat down heavily on a large, nearby rock. He took off his weapons and set them beside him. He withdrew his dagger from his sheath he had hidden away in his right glove. He drew his finger down the edge of the dagger and it did not cut.

"Someone bring a grinder. My dagger needs sharpened!"

A grinder was brought to him and he started to sharpen it. As he did so, a captain moved over to stand beside him. He stood to attention and saluted Gaddit.

"General, sir, with respect, I think that this mission may become messy for us in a bad way. The men are disheartened by the long hours of marching and no action. We think this journey so far has been a bad idea, with all due respect, sir."

The captain stood to attention and snapped his head forward in a sign of respect. Gaddit sat and sharpened. Everything had gone quiet. Gaddit stopped and ran his finger down the edge of his finger and the blade cut into him. He did not show pain. He motioned to the captain to come in closer and leant towards him to whisper in his ear.

"I didn't think that this war's first blood would be spilt by my hand in my own army."

Saying that, he took the dagger and slowly dug it into the captain's chest. The captain gurgled and sank to the floor. Gaddit withdrew the dagger and sheathed it.

The scout patrol were moving along quietly afraid to make too much noise for fear of being heard when there was a great cry from the bushes beside them. Three arrows spat out of them and dug themselves into the chests of the of the scout patrol. Small axes followed striking down another four. Then the men came with spears and swords. They cut down the remaining five, leaving the captain by himself, against the small band. The captain had drawn his sword and was facing the opposing ambush. A man with a large two headed battle-axe marked with the Vandals sign crept out of the bush behind the captain and with one quick swoop he lopped his head off. The captains head was taken by the man with the battle-axe, and driven onto a spike stuck into the ground. He laughed, turned and lumbered off into the hedges once more.

The ambush party gave another great cry and galloped off into their hedges once again.

Gaddit gobbled down some pig meat and drank some hot wine from the supplies. He closed his eyes, resting them from the sun and was shocked awake again fifteen minutes later by Taek telling of the scout party not returning. Gaddit opened his eyes and instinctively strapped on his weapons…


End file.
